Author Christie Golden has
posted a little more information about
the Arthas novel coming next year -- she lists the release date as April of 2009 (Arthas will probably still be alive then -- if "alive" is what he is now), and says that it'll be a nice hardback edition, which should be cool to see. She also says that while they were considering throwing a sample chapter in
the BlizzCon goodie bag, all they were able to get in is a little postcard art of the book's cover. Too bad -- it would have been fun reading
a little preview of the book while waiting in line to play, say,
Diablo III.
And for the
Starcraft fans, she's also got
a Dark Templar book coming out a month after that, in May 2009. It was supposed to be out sooner, but apparently Arthas' book got pushed forward, and she had to switch up schedules a bit. So two good pieces of extended universe fiction for Blizzard's games to look forward to next year.
[via
Blizzplanet]
Tags: 2009, april, arthas, blizzcon, blizzcon-goodie-bag, christie-golden, diablo-iii, release, starcraft
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Expansions, Lore, NPCs, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Sep 17th 2008 at 6:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anaughtybear Sep 17th 2008 6:12PM
That action figure looks like Ric Flair or something.
Kiukiu Sep 18th 2008 7:54AM
Wooooooooooooooo!!
I liked a couple of the Warcraft books, but in general I rate them lower to other fantasy novels (be they in original works or set in established worlds like Warhammer's brilliant writers, most notably Dan Abnett). If only they could have the sense to cough up some money and get someone really good to write for them...it'd improve the telling of their lore a lot.
A story is only as good as how it is told. Even a fairly generic and predictable thing can be told wonderfully and make you think "wow, that is badass". After all, as someone else mentioned in the comments here, there's a whole "good guy gone bad" like with Darth Vader. That's a pretty linear progression there. What can make you want to read about something you already know everything about? Really really badass things. Is Darth Vader a badass? Is the Lich King a badass? It's pretty hard to fail with such awesome characters unless you try to make them...different. Again, Star Wars did it...and it failed.
You make lore, you make characters, you flesh them out and you get people to love/hate them. They've got an easy thing to make look interesting (Arthas never got to raid because he was Ret, as we all know) and even a mildly talented writer could make you want to read it.
Knaak...however. No. Anyone but him...which is who we have. That's at least one good move by Blizzard :P
Bjara Sep 17th 2008 6:26PM
I'm so glad she's writing it instead of Knaack.
Macgayver Sep 17th 2008 7:34PM
Looks as if someone set fire to it.
Krzawwf Sep 17th 2008 8:18PM
Nice!
The Arthas story always felt like missing something.
I hope that these will make it all feel better.
It might have some new cool characters too to make better as a book.
I am still a bit unsure about that new writer tho. Hopefully she wont go girly over Arthas and will do a good job like Knaak.
arycogre Sep 17th 2008 10:11PM
She's not that new. She wrote Lord of the Clans and Rise of the Horde, which are personally my favorite of all the Warcraft novels.
Nene Sep 17th 2008 9:57PM
....Arthas novel..? Is it going to be first-person narrative?
...I'm torn between being genuinely creeped out at a Arthas novel in first-person right around the time of Stratholme and tearing myself in half in laughter at the thought of Arthas writing in his emo diary, wanking about Uther and talking about cutting himself with Frostmourne because Jaina gave him the heave-ho for magic.
...Still going to read it.
mtsadowski Sep 17th 2008 11:40PM
That... would be AWESOME!
Talsande Sep 18th 2008 5:24AM
Omg, are you people serious? There is obviously no quality control when it comes to lore with any of the warcraft books, even the Diablo ones are pathetic. I can't believe Metzen lets these people write for Blizzard. If Blizzard keeps authorizing every retard with a crayon and a piece of paper to write for them (e.g the above mentioned author), very soon Warcraft is going to go the way Star Wars series has.
If you think these books are good, you really need to take a good hard look at yourself.
Reric Sep 18th 2008 12:43PM
I'm more concerned about them trying to make out Arthas to be conflicted. I'm really worried that in Wrath they are going to throw something in so that Arthas is redeemed or something. I have always felt he is pretty much outright evil and needs to be destroyed, no "learning of the errors of his ways" or "the lich king made me do it".